Oral Health Education · NEBDN certificate
Communication and Behaviour Change
The COM-B model, motivational approaches and goal setting, brief interventions, oral cancer referral.
Turning correct advice into changed behaviour. The topic covers behaviour change principles and the COM-B model, motivational approaches, goal setting and the named techniques that go with each stage, how an intervention is actually delivered, and how the approach changes for different patient groups. It also carries the tobacco and alcohol brief interventions and stop-smoking support, and oral cancer risk factors together with the circumstances that call for prompt referral.
What this topic covers
These are the sub-topics the app's 30 questions for this topic are grouped into, with the number of questions on each. They are a fair map of where the weight sits.
| Sub-topic | Questions |
|---|---|
| Behaviour change principles and the COM-B model | 4 |
| Motivational approaches, communication and goal setting | 4 |
| EMQ: Behaviour change techniques | 3 |
| EMQ: Brief intervention responses | 3 |
| EMQ: Oral cancer risk factors | 3 |
| EMQ: Stop smoking aids and support | 3 |
| Oral cancer risk factors and prompt referral | 3 |
| Tobacco and alcohol brief interventions | 3 |
| Communicating with different patient groups | 2 |
| Delivering behaviour change interventions | 2 |
Sub-topics beginning “EMQ” are extended matching questions: one stem, one right answer, and a list of up to 9 options to choose it from. They are testing whether you can discriminate between neighbouring answers, not whether you recognise the right one.
Study guide
The topic that separates an oral health educator from someone who knows about oral health. Correct advice delivered badly changes nothing, and the assessment tests the named techniques and models rather than general good intentions.
Behaviour change principles and COM-B
A named model, examined as a model. You are expected to use its vocabulary rather than paraphrase it.
- COM-B identifies distinct components that must be present for a behaviour to occur — questions ask which component a described barrier belongs to.
- An intervention that addresses the wrong component will not work, and scenario questions are built on that mismatch.
- Readiness to change determines which techniques are appropriate at all.
Named techniques and goal setting
The techniques have specific names and specific boundaries, and the distractors are neighbouring techniques.
- Barrier identification, relapse planning, goal setting, praise and reward each describe a different action at a different stage — the differences are fine and are exactly what is tested.
- Goal setting produces an agreement about what and by when; it is not the same as giving information.
- Extended matching questions on behaviour change techniques ask you to name the technique from a described exchange.
Brief interventions: tobacco and alcohol
A structured, short intervention with a defined shape.
- A brief intervention has a recognised structure, and questions test whether a described response follows it.
- Stop-smoking aids and support routes form their own extended matching set.
- Referral is part of the intervention, not an alternative to it.
Oral cancer risk and prompt referral
The topic where getting it wrong matters most outside the exam.
- The major risk factors are examined, including how they interact.
- Certain presentations call for prompt referral, and recognising them is examinable.
- This sits in the communication topic because raising it with a patient is itself a communication task.
In the exam The distractors here are other real techniques, described accurately. A question about barrier identification will offer relapse planning as an option, and both are genuine techniques from the same list. Learn the boundary between neighbouring techniques — what stage each belongs to, and what each actually produces.
This topic's questions are in the app
The free tier does not unlock any of the 30 questions for this topic, so there is no quiz to run here — and publishing one anyway would give away more than the app itself does. The study guide above is free to read in full.
To practise this topic, get the app. Or start with one of the topics that are free here .
For iPhone, iPad and Android.
Carry on with
Caries and Prevention
The caries process, risk assessment and recall, preventive advice by age band, early childhood caries.
Periodontal Health and BPE
BPE codes and the actions they trigger, the disease process, plaque and calculus control, interdental cleaning.
Diet and Nutrition
Free sugars and their sources, frequency and the Stephan curve, dietary acid and erosion, advice by age.
Revise anywhere, with the whole Radiography & Post-Reg bank
This site publishes the app's free sample — 48 of 780 questions, across 4 of 17 topics. Dental Radiography & Post-Reg carries the full bank offline across all 4 certificates, so you can revise on the bus, between patients, or the night before.
- All 780 questions
- Every question across all 4 certificates, including the 13 topics this site cannot unlock.
- 75-question mock test
- Timed at 90 minutes, drawn from one certificate at a time.
- An explanation every time
- Every answer explains itself and cites where it comes from, right or wrong.
- Progress you can see
- History and per-topic results show which certificates still need the work.
For iPhone, iPad and Android.
